He stands alone

Culturally Alone: He lives in Drew, Mississippi, which is a town within Sunflower County. The town has only 1,801 residents and needless to say, he stands out.

Since 1990, the population has been on the decrease in Drew. In 1991, the population rang in at 2,400 residents. By 2014, the number was down to 1,801 residents.

In Drew, 82.7% of the population is black while 16% are white. In other words, he represents 1.3% of the “Other” category. To make the math clear, only 23 people in Drew are either American Indian or directly from cultures outside the U.S.

If we were to further examine the numbers, 0.7% of the residents in Drew are Hispanic, 0.2% are American Indian, 0.2% are Asian and 0.2% are classified as being part of one or two more races.

Talk about being culturally alone, this would be a prime example of that. Sometimes being different is a good thing while other times it means you can't fully relate to your surroundings, others fail to relate to you and you stand alone.

In Drew, this man works hard for a living while owning his own gas station and grocery. He also operates a popular package store. However, people litter his property despite his significant request for them not to. He stands alone.

The prison saved the community

While the Corrections Corporation of America operates a prison directly behind his home, he does not work there. However, he does work security for a local company in the Delta of Mississippi. 

Tallahatchie County, Mississippi is a small community in the Delta that has a little more than 15,000 residents. Of that number, about 600 work in the prison behind this man’s home. The prison is contracted through the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Before the opening of the prison, the county was on the downfall quick. 

While standing in his front yard on a hot September day, he told me, “The only thing that made a difference was they put that private prison back here [pointing behind his home].” CCA pays property taxes to Tallahatchie County for the facility.

Since opening in year 2000, the prison has served as both a county jail and a prison that houses inmates from all over the country. The prison currently has inmates from Mississippi, Wisconsin, Colorado, Louisiana, Hawaii and California. 

In 2008, California sent 1,300 inmates to the facility in Mississippi. Soon after their arrival, a riot broke out between rival California gang members. This man remembered that day well, “I seen they was on top of the building. They had SWAT on top of the building and stuff like that.” He said the county had to shut the highway in front of the prison down until the problem was fixed and inmates back in their cells. 

Some may ask if the community likes having inmates from all over the country in their local facility. The answer would be an overwhelming yes. 

If other states did not send inmates to Tallahatchie County, the prison would fold and the town would see massive layoffs from CCA. That happened in 2001 when Alabama withdrew their inmates. The employee number went from 204 to 40 by the end of 2001. However, they have since recovered and continue to grow steadily. 

I think it is safe to say that all in all, the prison literally saved the county and the city of Tutwiler, Mississippi.

Living the the impoverished Delta region of Mississippi

In Clarksdale, Mississippi I spoke to this man who told me that the jobs are gone and the youth has gone wild. He is retired and calls the Delta home.

“I’ve lived here about 55 years,” he told me. When asked to explain the area he stated, “I done saw the whole town change, there used to be plenty of jobs and everything, mostly all the jobs done left – it’s sad, but that’s the way it is – and people done changed too, the crime rate wasn’t as high as it is now and a lot of killings been going on here and back in the day, it wasn’t like that, people had love for one another.”

As for the biggest crimes in the Delta, he told me shootings and assaults. He then said, “You know, kids are raising their self. There’s no discipline in the homes. The average grandmother now is maybe 34-35 years old – when I was coming up the average grandmother was about 70 something.”

Artistic or Weird?

As you walked through his gate an air raid siren sounded. Some of the signs on the fence along the road read, “No Trespassing, No Loud Music, No Loitering.” Other signs were simply pictures or stickers of an assault rifle. With that being said, I wanted to meet the man behind the collection of oddities.

As I made my way to the front porch crawling over old refrigerators, tires, washing machines and more, I could hear a television was on inside the house. However, my knocks on the door were unanswered.

I then made my way back to the road, this time noticing some of the scrap metal had been turned into art. Sculptors of old motors were to the left and a sculpture of an airplane to the right. Plastic skulls adorned the fence post along with the heads of mannequins.

“I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird.”  - Frank Zappa, American musician, composer, guitarist, filmmaker and more (1940-1993)

Photo taken in the Mississippi Delta region.

Sunflower County in the Delta

I shot this photo in Sunflower, Mississippi in the Delta.

He was with three of his friends behind a convenient store and liquor store. However, before I left the owner asked all three to leave the area suggesting that all they do when behind the store is litter.

Sunflower County is often called Sunflower Country. It was named Sunflower in 1844.

In the 1930's, the county had over 66,000 residents. Today, that number is down to 27,005. It is one of the poorest counties in the state and also one of the poorest in the U.S.

The Mississippi State Penitentiary is one of the largest employers in the area. It is the home of Mississippi's death row and execution chamber.

A swamp in the Delta of Mississippi

It looked like a painting both in life and in picture. The swamps of the Mississippi Delta. 

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." -George Washington Carver

Farming, a way of life

On the move with big equipment: Even under dark rain filled clouds, every turn in the Delta region of Mississippi offers a new feast for the eyes of little boys who grew up with Tonka trucks and tractors. 

Lost her husband upon his return from Vietnam

She is one of nearly 11,400 residents in Yazoo, Mississippi, between the Yazoo River and the Mississippi River.

She has been a widow since her husband died shortly after his return from Vietnam. However, she was quick to tell me that he took very good care of her.

When asked if she would like to move, the answer was, “If I could move to D.C. where my kids are.” Like many children in the Delta region, once they are old enough to move on, they quickly do in search of better jobs as employment is scarce in the Delta. She told me that if she had the money, she would make the move to Washington D.C., but she doesn’t, so she will stay put. 

100 Pound Watermelons in the Delta of Mississippi

He is a former Sheriff’s Deputy in Tunica County, Mississippi and he is now retired. He carries a small handgun in his left pocket at all times, as crime is quite high on the Delta. Health problems like diabetes keeps him home many days, but he has a love for his garden and his small dog.

He lives alone with his Chihuahua, but finds joy in his garden that sits in the front yard of his camper. He has grown everything from okra to watermelons. He said with a smile from ear to ear, “I have grown everything from sweet corn, green beans, whole beans, you name it and I have pretty well grown it.”

He recently grew several 100 pound watermelons that he took to a local school in Tunica County. He said, “I had some special seed that grew some extremely large watermelons and I donated a couple of them to the local private school over here (Pointing South) and after football practice one day they enjoyed some big watermelons.”

This is my home

She has called the Delta of Mississippi her home her entire life. She, like many residents, like the slower pace of life compared to larger cities. However, she confirmed that jobs are scarce.

As far as change of the years, she said little is different. Farm jobs were lost years ago with new technology. Retail stores are scarce along with restaurants these days.

An article about the Delta in The Economist stated (2013):

“You can’t out-poor the Delta,” says Christopher Masingill, joint head of the Delta Regional Authority, a development agency. In parts of it, he says, people have a lower life expectancy than in Tanzania; other areas do not yet have proper sanitation.

We are all similar

The Mississippi Delta: “I’m from Memphis,” he told me with a slow country slur. He moved to the Delta of Mississippi for a slower pace of life and less crime than the big city.

We are all human beings working on our hurts, sins and life together despite of our current living arraignments. Some of us live in the Delta while others live in large cities at a faster pace. But underneath our hats, many of us have similar past.

“Practiced on our sins
Never gonna let me win, uh huh
Under everything
Just another human being, uh huh"

"Yeah, I don't want to hurt
There's so much in this world
To make me bleed”

-Eddie Vedder, Just Breath

Working off fines in the Delta

Living in the Delta of Mississippi is tough due to a lack of jobs that are currently available. Things that many of us in most cities could avoid like paying a simple fine can quickly equal headaches and sometimes jail time in the Delta.

This man lives in Indianola, Mississippi and was jailed for a speeding ticket and driving without a license as opposed to simply paying the fines. Due to a lack of income, he is working off the fines through the workhouse.